Psy 1001

Fall 2014
Exam 3 will cover lectures on Individual Differences (Intelligence, BG, & Gender differences,
Personality, Evolutionary Psychology Emotion and Social Psychology). The related
chapters in the textbook are 9, 11, 13, and 14.
Intelligence, Behavior Genetics and Individual differences (Lectures, discussion sections
and chapter 9)
Nature v Nurture
1. What is the study of individual differences (also known as differential psychology) and what
kinds of questions does it study? What methods does it use? What is the Nature versus
Nurture controversy? Why is differential psychology prone to controversy? What was the
eugenics movement?

-study of individual differences: Area of psychology devoted to

inves7ga7ng the nature, origin, and consequences of individual
differences in behavior
-Eugenics: if talented men were mated with talented women, of the
same mental and physical characters as themselves, generation to
generation, we might produce a highly-bred human race, with no more
tendency to revert to meaner ancestral types than is shown by our longestablished breeds of race-horses and fox-hounds.
2. What is the basic logic of a behavior genetics study? How can this method tease apart
nature versus nurture questions? What role does the shared environment play in making
people more alike? What is the role of the unshared environment?
Intelligence: What is it?
3. Who was Francis Galton? Alfred Binet? What were their contributions to intelligence
research?

-
Galton founded the Eugenics movement
-Binet created one of the first IQ test with Simon
4. How is intelligence defined? What does it mean to say that intelligence is a theoretical
construct?

Refers to ability
o To understand and use complex ideas
o To adapt effectively to the environment
o To learn from experience
o To engage in abstract reasoning
- It is a theoretical construct because it is always changing, the definition
is actually different actions we do

5. Is intelligence one thing or multifaceted? What is the evidence that intelligence is one
thing? What is g?

One thing (Spearman)

-He thought that in general having higher g meant more mental
energy, and a more powerful brain
-This is very controversial because people are then not all equal and
some just smarter than others
-He also noted that specific abilities (s): particular ability level in a narrow
domain, may influence certain skill areas along with g
Multifaceted
- -Idea that people vary in their ability levels across different domains of
intellectual
skill
-G may be true but it is not the whole story (G:hypothetical factor that
accounts of overall differences in intellect among people)
6. What is the evidence that intelligence is multifaceted? What is Howard Gardners theory?
How did Gardner come up with his eight different intelligences? What are the
characteristics of people who score high on verbal/linguistic, body kinesthetic and
logical/mathematical intelligence? What are criticisms of Gardner? What are crystallized
and fluid intelligence?

-Howard Gardner believed that there are multiple ways of thinking about
the world and each frame of mind is different and fully independent
-Brain damage and certain special abilities must be isolated and show
that in these certain areas they have specific intelligence
-Critcisims: Hard to falsify, many other possible intelligence categories
-Fluid intelligence: capacity to learn new ways of solving problems
with old knowledge
(abilities decrease over time)
-Crystallized intelligence: accumulated knowledge of the world acquired
over tim
(abilities increase over time)
7. What is an IQ and how does one calculate it? What does mental age mean?

-Intelligence quotient (IQ): systematic means of quantifying differences

among people in their intelligence
- Divide mental age by chronological age and multiple by 100 IQ
-Mental age: age corresponding to the average individuals performance
on an intelligence test
Intelligence: real or a social construct?
8. How stable is IQ over time?

-Mental age gradually increases until age 16 where it levels off

9. What is the Flynn effect? What hypotheses are offered to explain the Flynn effect?

-Flynn effect: finding that average IQ scores have been rising at a rate of
approximately three points per decade
-Increased test sophistication: the fact that today people have more
experience takingtests, the problem is that even in culture fair tests this
is true in areas that have little exposure to taking tests
- Increased complexity of the modern world: the access to more
technology causes us to think faster and have a more active brain
-Better nutrition: the lower part of the bell curve has been improving and
this is most likely because the nutrition of people has been improving
10. What are things that correlate with intelligence?
Individual and group differences in IQ
11. What are some IQ differences between men and women? How would a socialization theory
explain those differences? What is a biological explanation for those differences?

- Men are generally more variable in their IQ scores and women remain
stable on average
- Men are generally spread out over the bell curve and have more at the
tail end and the high end vs. women are more concentrated in the middle
-Biological explanation: Genetic predisposition and hormones may be a
cause of specialized abilities for each gender
-socialization theory: Most likely due to the environment that we grow up
in and the cultural pressures of society for genders to behave a certain
way
12. What is the evidence for smart brains in terms of efficiency, reaction time, size,
development, location of activity in brain?
13. In terms of environmental effects on IQ, what evidence suggests that school affects IQ?
What evidence suggests that socioeconomic deprivation and nutrition affect IQ?

-school affect: Educated people have more synapses than less educated
people, Also people with higher IQs generally have more years of
educated, the causation is unknown, whether smart people take more
classes, or taking more classes causes smartness
-effect of poverty: Poverty leads to malnurishment which also can be a
cause of low IQ and also they are more likely to ingest lead which can
cause learning disabilities
14. What is an environmental explanation for differences between males and females? What is
a genetic explanation?

-Most likely due to the environment that we grow up in and the cultural
pressures of society for genders to behave a certain way
How is IQ measured and what are the features of good measurement?

15. What is validity? Reliability? How does one evaluate how good a test is?

-Reliability: the fact that you can redo an experiment and get the
same result is good reliability
-validity: the extent to which a measure assesses what it purports
to measure
-You examine the reliability and validity of it
16. Describe the approach measured by the following commonly used IQ tests: the WAIS, the
Ravens, the WISC. Why would you choose to use one or the other?

-WAIS: Wechsler Adult Intelligence scale (WAIS): most widely used

intelligence test for adults today, consisting of 15 subtests to assess
different types of mental abilities
-Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and the Wechsler Primary
and Preschool Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI)
-Ravens Progressive Matrices is the most commonly used culture-fair IQ
test
Personality: Theory, research and assessment (lectures, discussion section & chapter 14)
What is personality? How can it be measured?
1. Dr. Simpson defines personality as distinctive, characteristic patterns of thought, emotion
and behavior that uniquely define an individual. What is meant by distinctive and
characteristic (that is, consistent) in this definition?

-distinctive: people react differently to the same situation

-characteristic/consistent: stability in a persons behavior over time and
across situations; state (temporary) vs trait (enduring)
2.

What is the Person-Situation debate? Why is this important? Who is Walter Mischel?

-Person-Situation debate: Is behavior controlled by personality or the

situation? interactionism: considers both person and situation
-Why: stability across situations/life span~ due to something inside the
person or similarity in situations over time?
-Walter Mischel: He said its the situation and spawned 20 years of
research on this debate; behavioral inconsistency argument: found low
correlations among different behaviors presumed to reflect the same trait
(e.g. dishonesty among children.. he found those likely to steal are not
more likely to cheat on exams than other kids) ITS THE SITUATION not
the personality traits.
3.

What is a self-report measure? A projective test? What assumptions underlie each? What
are the strengths and limitations of each of these approaches?

-self-report measures: direct, face-valid measures

-projective tests: indirect measures, needed to get at deeper
(unconscious) aspects of personality
-assumptions:

-MMPI: MN Multiphasic Personality Inventory=most extensively

researched of all structured personality tests. revised version: MMPI-2
consists of 567 true-false items. 3 validity scales (L-lie, K-correction, Ffrequency); 10 basic scales (8 of which assess mental disorders),
developed by empirical (data-based) method of test contruction ~
generally comparing 2 groups (1 with a disorder, 1 normal, seeing which
item distinguishes the two). reliable and valid for differentiating among
mental disorders; but limitations: many of the scales are correlated
highly so theyre largely redundant with each other. and psychologists
cant use them to make formal diagnoses of mental disorders because
high schores on these scales arent specific to a single disorder, and
clinicians sometimes misuse these scales for this purpose
-CPI: California Psychological Inventory ~ the common persons MMPI.
Unlike MMPI, it assesses personality traits in the normal range like
dominance, flexibility, sociability, etc. it is reasonably reliable over time
and valid for assessing personality traits. limitations though: like the
MMPI, the CPI scales are highly correlated and largely redundant with
each other
-Berkley Personality Profile:
-TAT: Thematic Apperception Test ~ tell a tale test.. 31 cards depicting
ambiguous situations, most of them interpersonal in nature. - the content
of the examinees stories is inspected and analyzed using clinical
intuition alone. strengths: assessing needs for achievement is pretty valid
(measures of achievement from the TAT correlate positively to
occupational success/income) and moderately valid for assessing what
psychologists call object relations - perceptions of others, such as
whether people see others as helpful or harmful.. limitations: not
reliable/valid.. scores have often failed to distinguish psychiatric patients,
such as people with clinical depression, from nonpatients or to correlate
in predicted directions with personality traits, or good incremental
validity
-Rorschach: consists of 10 symmetrical inkblots, 5 in black-and-white and
5 in color. responders have to look at each inkblot and say what it
resembles, their answers supposedly give clues to their personality traits.
(ex: people who focus on tiny details might be more OCD). It is a
scientifically controversial test. test-retest reliabilities of many of its
scorers are unknown; interrater reliabilties are often problematic; little
evidence that it validly detects the features of most mental disorders or
predicts criminal traits or behaviors. it doesnt contain scales to
malingering, so people can fake disorders. Lack of evidence for its
incremental validity: the extent to which it contributes info beyond other
more easily collected measures. (long test to administer and interpret
about 2 hrs 15 mins total). it is still really popular because of its surface
plausibility.

What are the following and which are self-report measures, and which are projective tests?
The MMPI, the CPI, the BFAS? What is the Thematic Apperception Test (the TAT)? The
Rorschach? ^
5. What is meant by an idiographic approach to personality? What is a nomothetic approach?
4.

-Idiographic: Unique constellation of special attributes, Cannot compare

across people, focus on the individual
- Nomothetic: compared with others, Everyone has certain traits to
some degree, Limited
subset of traits (only differ in amounts),
Models of personality
6. Gordon Allport proposed an idiographic approach to personality with three levels: cardinal
traits, central disposition and secondary dispositions. What kinds of characteristics are
associated with each level?

-cardinal: extremely pervasive in persons life

-central: a few traits that stand out in a person
-secondary: less salient characteristics, may operate in only limited
settings
7.

What is the Lexical Hypothesis? If a factor is represented by many more words in one
culture/language than another, what inference can you make about that culture, given the
Lexical Hypothesis?

-lexical hypothesis: all meaningful individual differences have been

encoded into language
-inference: the culture that has many words for a factor really values that
factor
8.

What is meant by factor analysis? When is factor analysis useful?

- A statistical approach used to determine how many concepts are

measured by a set of questions; this method analyzes correlations among
responses on personality measures to identify the underlying factors
that give rise to these correlations
- the Big 5 emerge from factory analysis of personality traits from the
dictionary
- it is useful when trying to narrow down personality traits/other things
9.

What is a personality trait? What is the Five Factor Model? What are the five traits and
what behaviors are characteristic of high or low scores on each trait? (Imagine exam items
in which someone is described to you and you have to correctly identify whether this
person is high or low on a given trait.)

-the big 5 (model) consists of 5 traits that have surfaced repeatedly in

factor analyses of personality measures
-openness to experience: open people tend to be intellectually curious
and unconventional

-conscientiousness: conscientious people tend to be careful and

responsible
-extraversion: extraverted people tend to be social and lively
-agreeableness: agreeable people tend to be sociable and easy to get
along with
-neuroticism: neurotic people tend to be tense and moody
A little bit about Psychoanalysis (from the textbook)
10. Who is Sigmund Freud? What are three assumptions that set Freudian theory apart from
other theories of personality? What are each of the following components of personality: Id,
Ego, Superego? What is the reality principle?

-came up with psychoanalytic theory (granddad of all influential models

of personality)
-3 assumptions:
psychic determinism: all psychological events have a cause, all
events are caused, we arent free to choose our actions because were at
the mercy of powerful inner forces that lie outside of our awareness..
symbolic meaning: no action, no matter how seemingly trivial, is
meaningless. (all are attributable to preceding mental causes even if we
cant figure them out)
unconscious motivation: freudians argue for the central importance
of this. that the unconscious parts of our mind hold immense importance
in the causes of our personality
-Id: the reservoir of our most primitive impulses, a seething cauldron of
desires that provides the driving force much of our behavior
(unconscious)
-Ego: the boss of the personality, its principal decision maker. interacts
with the real world and resolving the competing demands between the id
and superego
-Superego: our sense of morality. sense of right vs wrong. above ego
-Reality Principle: the ego is governed by this. it strives to delay
gratification until it can find an appropriate outlet (dont scream in
class..wait til u can throw darts or something)
11. How do defense mechanisms work? What are repression, denial, regression, reaction-

formation, projection, displacement, rationalization, sublimation and identification with the

aggressor?

-they are unconscious maneuvers intended to minimize anxiety

-repression: motivated forgetting of emotionally threatening memories or
impulses
-denial: motivated forgetting of distressing experiences
-regression: returning psychologically to a younger and safer time
-reaction-formation: transforming an anxiety-producing experience into
its opposite

-projection: unconscious attribution of our negative qualities onto others

-displacement: directing an impulse from a socially unacceptable target
onto a more acceptable one
-rationalization: providing reasonable-sounding explanations for
unreasonable behaviors or failures
-sublimation: transforming a socially unacceptable impulse into an
admired and socially valued goal
-identification with the aggressor: adopting the psychological
characteristics of people we find threatening
Attachment Theory (review Development, chapter 10, pages 390 - 394)
1. To what does attachment refer? What are the three stages of separation distress?

-Humans have a strong need to form and maintain stable

relationships. The same feelings that keep parents emotionally attached
to their children may also keep romantic partners bonded
-3 stages: protest= persistent attempts to re-establish contact,
despair= prolonged inactivity/helplessness, detachment= withdrawal
from/coolness toward parent/lover
2. What is meant by the functions of attachment: proximity, safe haven, secure base?

-proximity: near becomes dear

-safe haven: place of refuge/security
-secure base:comfort provided by attachment figures, a secure
base allows individuals to venture forth more confidently and explore
their environment
3. What is the Strange Situation test? What parenting styles are associated with the different
kinds of attachment that emerge between an infant and its mother? What kinds of behavior
are typical of children with each kind of attachment.

-strange situation test: a lab procedure for examining one year

olds reactions to separation from their attachment figures, usually their
mothers.
mothers bring babies into room with toys, then a stranger
enters, then mother leaves, then comes back. -- babies fall into 1 of 4
categories for attachment: secure(60%)=mom leaving makes them upset
and greets her with joy when she comes back. insecure-avoidant(1520%)=indifferent to departure and little rxn to her return. insecureanxious(15-20%)=departure makes them panic, and when she returns
they reach for her yet squirm away at the same time. disorganized(510%)=confused...
-Contingent/responsive care --> becoming secure. (can depend on
others)
-Rejecting care --> becoming avoidant (cannot depend on others)

-Inconsistent/unpredictable care --> become anxious-ambivalent.

(might be able to depend on others)
4. Describe Harry Harlows research with monkeys. Describe key findings of Harlows
research. What theories was Harlow comparing? What is contact comfort?

- contact comfort: positive emotions afforded by touch

-Harry took baby monkeys away from mothers at birth and placed
them with 2 surrogate fake mothers. one wiry and uncomfortable with
milk (nourishment), the other comfortable and soft.
-turns out the babies went to get milk once in awhile but spent
most of their time with the comfortable mom and went to her if they
were ever scared of something
5. Describe the long-term consequences of the secure attachment style especially in love
relationships. What were the patterns of support found by Dr. Simpson in his research on
couple behavior in stressful situations.

-Secure people have well integrated views of the self and others
-patterns:Induced fear in women, and then had them wait with their non-

stressed male dating partners for 5 minutes.

Secure women were more likely to actively seek support and secure men were
more likely to give it, especially if the female was more upset. Avoidant women
were less likely to seek support and avoidant men were less likely to give it,
especially if the female was more upset.

-internal working models: I can depend on others (Secure)

I might be able to depend on others (Anxious)
I cannot depend on others (Avoidant)

-when activated: 1. People feel ill, fatigued, stressed, or are in pain.

2. Environmental factors are threatening (due to fear,
relationship separation/loss, overly challenging
situations).
3. Core attachment concerns become salient.
6. What are the internal working models of the different kinds of attachment? When are
working models activated?
Please note that the textbook and the lecturer use slightly different names for the different kinds of
attachment. Hopefully this will help:
SIMPSON

TEXT

Secure

Secure

Avoidant

Insecure-Avoidant

Anxious-ambivalent

Insecure-Anxious

Disorganized
Evolutionary Psychology (lectures, supplemental reading)
1. What are the basic assumptions of evolutionary psychology?

-Neural tissue is no different from any other tissue; it is functionally organized to serve
survival and reproduction.
2. What is Natural selection? Selective breeding?

-Natural selection: genes that improve survival and reproductive

success get passed on in large numbers to the next generation.
-selective breeding: rapid evolution, we are bred by the
environment .. through more generations, the gap between dull and
bright organisms is increasing
3. What are some things that the human brain is specialized to do?

-Learn language, fear things (snakes, spiders), detect

healthy/unhealthy others, identify cheaters in groups
4. What is the evidence for sexual selection? What is sexual dimorphism and when is it
found?

-different breeds in animals.. and women and men in humans

especially look for certain characteristics
-sexual dimorphism is the average size difference between males
and females in a species.
5. What is Parental Investment theory? Why are women pickier about potential mates?

Females have evolved to detect males with what characteristics? Males

have evolved to detect what characteristics of females?
-females look for providers that will invest in them and offspring and will
pass on desirable traits onto offspring
-males look for females who are viable to have kids and arent likely to
mate with other men
-women are pickier because they initiallly invest more in offspring and
can produce fewer offspring than males
-theory: The sex that initially invests more in offspring is a resource for which the
less investing sex competes

6. Females have evolved to detect males with what characteristics? Males have evolved to
detect what characteristics of females?
^
7. What tradeoffs do researchers find for females? for males?
-Women evolved to trade-off good provision for good genes when choosing
mates, and vice versa.. sometimes women will want to marry a good provider
but remain open to selective mating with men with good genes hence all the
variation in womens sociosexual attitude and behavior

-many men dont have good genes so they make up for it by being a good
provider
8. What is meant by inclusive fitness? What is the reasoning for the evidence that stepparents are more likely to be abusive than biological parents?

-inclusive fitness: u share a proportion of your genes with your relatives

-reasoning: share no genes with offspring

Emotion & Motivation (lectures, discussion section & chapter 11)

What is emotion?
1. What were the key components of Dr Gewirtzs definition of emotion? Emotional responses
have three aspects: feelings, autonomic responses, and somatic responses. What does
each of these refer to?
2.

-What is an emotion: a state, elicited by a strongly motivational event or

by anticipation of such an event that produces a coordinated set of
adaptive responses
1) Feelings: Introspection,
subjective
2) Autonomic responses: sympathetic, activation, hormonal
3) Somatic responses: facial expressions (in humans), approach or
avoidance
-Emotional responses can be measured using the blink response, which is a way to
measure startle response. When the appetitive emotive system is engaged, startle
responses are suppressed, and when the defensive motive system is engaged, you will
see a startle response that is greater than in a neutral condition (that's the fearpotentiated startle).

3.

What is the evolutionary view of emotion as originally proposed by Darwin? What is the
adaptive value of emotion? What evidence suggests that these emotions are innate?

-Darwin:
-Emotions promote survival of the species
-Emotional responses are instinctive and learned not culture specific
-adaptive value: Emotional reactions are shaped in part by natural
selection and serve crucial adaptive functions
-Evidence: Automatic generation of emotion
-When pictures or faces of emotion were faced so quickly that the
subjects couldnt identify them, the subject still displayed that emotion
on their face or had a physiological response
4.

What are Ekmans six (or seven) basic emotions? How was this research done?

-Paul Ekman: 6 basic emotions

Happiness
Sadness
Anger
Fear
Disgust
Surprise
Across culture generally even in places that were not exposed to
western culture they could identify these 6 emotions from pictures of
facial expressions
How can researchers study emotion using the fear-potentiated startle response?
5. How can researchers study emotion in rats? What is the fear-potentiated startle response?
How is the fear-potentiated startle acquired by rats?

-They often put electrical signals through the floor of a metal grate and
measure thier amygdala and its responses
-Potentiated Startle effect: the reaction to startling noises or events
-Loud noises or sudden events or movements
-It is acquired by rats using conditioning
6.

What is the International Affective Picture system (IAPS)? How is research done with the
IAPS?

-used to test emotional responses

-800+ pictures with normative ratings of valence (pleasant versus
unpleasant) andarousal
-Little electrical patches are placed in the amygdala and the responses
are measured
-pleasant: beaches, puppies, babies
-unpleasant: bugs, gore
-arousal: high arousal: gore, romance; low arousal: people, objects
Using the IAPS, what two dimensions of emotion are studied: valence (pleasant and
unpleasant) and arousal? What kinds of images are associated with these dimensions?
^
8. What are the three primary motive systems, based on this research? What is meant by a
primary motive system?
7.

-The appetitive motive system (you'll see activation in the nucleus accumbens)
motivates approach behaviors to things that are good for us or for the species. It is
evoked with IAPS pictures that are high arousing and pleasurable (high valence)--babies,
puppies, juicy hamburgers, sexy ladies and men, kissing couples.
-The defensive motive system (you'll see activation in the amygdala) motivates
avoidance behaviors to things that could be hazardous for us or for the species. It is
evoked with IAPS pictures that are high on the arousal dimension but unpleasant (low
valence)--you'll remember these photos, cockroaches, disgusting mold covered food,
disgusting cigarettes in an ash tray, a tarantula spider, a snake, a dog with its fangs

bared, an angry man, an accident scene. The defensive motive system makes us want
to fight or run away.
-The third motive system is impulse control. This system regulates the other two.
You can thank your impulse control system when you don't just take that juicy burger on
someone else's plate.

-primary motive system: unlearned drives, common to both

animal and human
How do individuals with phobias, psychopaths and normal people response to IAPS images?
9. What is a phobia? Compared to most people, how do individuals with phobia respond to
startle while viewing pleasant, high arousal images? While viewing neutral, low arousal
images? When viewing unpleasant, high arousal images? When shown the object of their
phobia?

-a phobia is an irrational fear of something

10. What is a psychopath? Compared to most people, how do psychopaths respond to startle

while viewing pleasant, high arousal images? While viewing neutral, low arousal images?
When viewing unpleasant, high arousal images?
Negative emotions (fear, anxiety) and treatment of PTSD
11. What is the role of the amygdala in emotion? What behavioral symptoms of anxiety are
associated with the amygdala? What happens to fear when the amygdala is lesioned?
the part of the brain that is active when experiencing a fearful event
12. What is Exposure therapy? How can exposure therapy be used for the treatment of PTSD
or fear of flying? What does extinction of a fear response involve--is the memory erased or
a new response learned? How can DCS (D-cycloserine) be used to speed up extinction?
Why?
13. What is a flashbulb memory? How can beta-blockers be used to treat PTSD? \
Positive emotions and drug addiction
14. What are rewards? What are typical rewards for humans? What rewards are primary?
What rewards are secondary? What neurotransmitter is associated with rewards? What is
the nucleus accumbens? Why is it associated with the reward pathway?

-rewards are stimuli that motivate behavior

-Rewarding stimuli cause the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine
-nucleus accumbens: part of the pleasure center and it is a collection of
neurons that forms the main part of the ventral striatum
-it is associated because it connects the VTA to the prefrontal cortex
15. What is drug addiction and how does addiction happen? What are the three mechanisms of

addiction described in lecture?

-Drug addiction: Habitual drug use, despite adverse effects on health and
social life and, generally, despite efforts to quit.
-How does addiction happen: Drugs hijack the brains reward system
mechanisms of addiction:

-drug activates the reward system and produces a high

-craving: drug produces urge to consume more
-withdrawal: cessation causes depression and anxiety
Theories of Emotion and motivation
16. What is the two-factor theory of Emotion? What were the findings of the Dutton & Aron
bridge study? How were these findings consistent with the two-factor theory of emotion?
What are the other theories of emotion, James-Lange theory of emotion and Cannon-Bard?

-Two-factor Theory: Their theory proposes that emotins are produced by

an undifferentiated state of arousal along with an attribution of that
arousal
-The findings showed that when an attractive woman went up to young
men on a sturdy bridge (no adrenaline) compared to an unsteady bridge
(with adrenaline) the ones that had adrenaline had a higher return rate of
calling her later on. they are consistent because the men have an
undifferentiated arousal on the wobbly bridge and then they labeled this
emotion as romantic attraction later on.
-James-Lange Theory: Theory proposing hat emotions result from our
interpretations of our bodily reactions to stimuli
-Cannon-Bard Theory: Their theory proposes that an emotion-provoking
event leads simultaneously to an emotion and to bodily reactions
17. What is the Mere Exposure effect? What is the Facial-feedback hypothesis?

-Mere Exposure: Phenomenon in which repeated exposure to a stimulus

makes us more like to feel favorably toward it
-facial-feedback: Theory that blood vessels in the face feed back
temperature info in the brain, altering our experience of emotions
18. What is Drive Reduction theory (formulated by Clark Hull, Donald Hebb and others)? What

is the Yerkes-Dodson Law? What does it predict as the optimal conditions for performance?
What are approach-approach conflicts? Approach-Avoidance conflicts? AvoidanceAvoidance conflicts?

-Drive reduction theory: theory that certain drives, like hunger,

thirst, and sexual frustration motivate us to act in ways that minimize
aversive states
-Yerkes-Dodson law: inverted U-shaped relation between arousal on
the one hand and mood and performance on the other
-The optimal spot is in the middle, to high or low creates
more failures
-Approach: when we have a predisposition toward certain stimuli
-Avoidance: disposition away from certain stimuli
Interpersonal attraction and relationship formation

19. What are the major principles that guide attraction and relationship formation? What

physical characteristics do humans find attractive?

- Sexual desire and its causes

-Testosterone can sometimes enhance sexual interest in the short term
- Serotonin also relates, with high levels of serotonin resulting in low
sexual desire
-A gene that produces DRD4 (dopamine transmission) is related to sexual
desire 20%, and another 70% have a gene that suppresses it
-physical characteristics:
men: when women look younger,looks are more important to men when
looking for a mate, men like women with a .7 ratio (where their waist
about 70% of their hips
women: when men are older, prefer a higher waist to hip ratio than men
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (lectures, discussion section & chapter 13)
1

What topics are of interest to Social Psychologists? What assumptions underlie the
research done by Social Psychologists. Briefly describe the history of this area of
psychology.
Social psychology is the study of how people influence others behavior, beliefs
and attitudes for both good and bad. Social psychology helps us understand not
only why we sometimes act helpfully and even heroically in the presence of
others, but also why we occasionally show our worst sides, caving in to group
pressure or standing by idly while others suffer.

Who is Kurt Lewin & what is Action Research?

Kurt is thought of as the founder of social psychology and was one of the first
to study group dynamics and organizational development.
Action research: a comparative research on the conditions and effects of various
forms of social action and search leading to social action that uses a spiral of
steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action , and fact
finding about the result of the action.

Social Cognition
3

What are the differences between a flawed scientist and a cognitive miser? Which one uses
system 1/intuitive or automatic thinking? Which one uses system 2/analytical/ controlled
thinking?
Flawed scientist: is rational, logical and reasonable in testing our assumptions or hunches,
values accuracy system 2?
Cognitive misers: take shortcuts, values ease and efficiency at the expense of accuracy
System 1?

What kinds of information does a flawed scientist use when thinking about the behavior of
others? What is the motivation of the flawed scientist?

Uses three kinds of info: 1. Consistency info, 2. Distinctiveness info 3.

Consensus Info
Motivation of the flawed scientists:
What kinds of information does a cognitive miser use? What is the motivation of the
cognitive miser?
Cognitive miser uses: nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, effortless.

What kinds of reasoning errors occur when the observer doesnt have enough information?

What kinds of errors occur when we dont process all relevant information? What role does
motivation to be right or to feel good play? What is situated social cognition?

What is the actor-observer bias?

Actor observer bias:

What is an attribution? What is an internal versus an external attribution? What is the

difference between situational factors and dispositional factors?
Attribution: process of assigning causes to behavior.
Internal attribution: insde the person, joe robbed the bank because hes impulsive
External: jones robbed a bank because his family is broke.
Dispositional influences: enduring characteristics, such as personality traits, attitude and
intelligence.
9

What is the Fundamental Attribution Error? What are some real world consequences of
attributions?
Fundamental Attribution Error: tendency to overestimate the impact of dispositional
influences on other peoples behavior
Real world consequences: a boss who fires several employees may be considered callous
but hes trying to save 100 other employees.
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11
12

What is cognitive dissonance? When does it occur? What are its real world consequences?
What is self-perception theory?
What is the dual process model of persuasion? What characterizes the central route and
what kinds of decisions are involved? What characterizes the peripheral route and what
kinds of decisions are involved?

Direct Social Influence

13

What is obedience? What is conformity? What is the difference between them?

Obedience: adherence to instructions from those of higher authority
Conformity: tendency of people to alter their behavior as a result of group pressure

14

How did Asch study conformity? Describe his findings. What variables influence whether or
not people conform?

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Asch studied conformity use 1 test subject and 6 others to perform a line test. Variables
that influenced whether or not people conform was : Uniformity of agreement, Difference in
the wrong answer, Size (majority made a difference)
How did Milgram study obedience? Describe his findings. What factors affect obedience?
What percentage of participants administered at least some shocks? What percentage
showed complete compliance? What is an authoritarian personality?
Milgram used the electric shock device to study obedience, ordered testers to keep
shocking with more wrong answers. Factors that affected obedience were morality of the
subjects . 62% showed complete compliance .
Authoritarian personality: obeidant, willing to comply with orders.

What is the foot-in-the-door technique? What is the door-in-the-face technique? What is

lowballing? What characteristics of the messenger increase persuasiveness?
Foot in the Door Technique
Can I borrow 10$? On second thought 20$? Sure.
Door in the Face Technique
Can I borrow 50$? No. Can I borrow 20? Sure.
Lowballing
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Indirect Social Influences

What is social facilitation? Describe the findings of Zajoncs cockroach study and the
playing pool study. How does social facilitation affect the performance of tasks that are
simple or well practiced? How does the presence of others affect a task which is difficult or
not well practiced?
Social facilitation: enhancement of performance brought about by the presence of others. Roaches
were faster when people watched. Arousal enhances on well practiced tasks, and impedes on
difficult ones.
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18 What is deindividuation? What causes deindividuation?

Deindividuation: tendency of people to engage in uncharacteristic behavior when they are stripped
of their usual identities.
Causes of this: emails, texts, impersonal forms of communication, face painting of warriors (KKK)
etc
19 Describe the group-bystander effect? What two factors explain the bystander effect? What
is pluralistic ignorance? What is diffusion of responsibility? Under what conditions are
people most likely to help?
Bystander effect: bystanders in emergencies typically want to intervene but often find themselves
frozen, seemingly helpless to help.
Two factors that explain this effect: pularistic igrnorance and diffusion of responsibility.
Pluralistic ignorance: error of assuming that no one in a group perceives things as we do
Diffusion of responsibility: reduction in feelings of personal responsibility in the presence of others.
20

Why are situations and groups powerful?

What is social loafing? How can group work be designed to enhance performance and
minimize social loafing?
Social loafing: phenomenon whereby individuals become less productive in groups
To combat this: ensure that each person in the group is identifiable.
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When does anonymity lead to negative social behaviors? When can it enhance social
behavior?

What are Prejudice and Discrimination?

23 What is in-group bias? What are its consequences? What are In-groups and Out-groups?
Ingroup bias: tendency to favor individuals within our group over those from outside our group.
Consequences: you tend to discriminate others, lose out on that.
24 In what ways do we view members of our In-group differently from out-groups? Which is
viewed as more heterogeneous? Which is viewed as more homogeneous?
Outgroup homogeneity: tendency to view all individuals outside our group as highly similar
25 What is prejudice? What is discrimination? What is a stereotype?
Prejudice: the drawing of negative conclusions about a person, group of people, or situation prior
to evaluating the evidence .
Discrimination: negative behavior toward members of out groups
Stereotype: a belief positive or negative about that characteristics of members of a group that is
applied generally to most members of the group
26 What is the Minimal Intergroup Paradigm?

a method for investigating the minimal conditions required for discrimination to

occur between groups
Describe the Robbers Cave Studies. How did the experimenters increase inter-group
hostility between the two groups of boys? How did they reduce inter-group hostility?
Robbers Cave Studies showed : when kids were split into two different groups the groups became
more competitive and started to name call, food throw at each other. Increased the hostility by
doing team competitions. Reduced it by making them work together.
28 What can be done to reduce prejudice?
29 What is the Need to Belong? What are behavioral consequences of the threat of isolation?
How does the brain respond to social rejection?
27

Group processes
30 Describe the group polarization process.
Group polarization: tendency of group discussion to strengthen the dominant positions held by
individual group members
31 What is social comparison theory? What is social contagion?
Social comparison theory: theory that we see to evaluate our abilities and beliefs by comparing
them with those of others
Social contagion:?
32 Define groupthink and describe its symptoms and impact on decision making. What is the
best treatment for groupthink?
Groupthink: emphasis on group unanimity at the expense of critical thinking

Cultural Psychology
33 What is culture? What does WEIRD refer to? On what dimensions do cultures differ?
34 What kind of differences are found in attention, cognition, emotion and behaviors based on
different cultural dimensions such as independence and interdependence or individualistic
versus collectivist? How does holistic thinking differ from analytical thinking?
35 How fundamental is the fundamental attribution theory?
36 What is the Twenty Statements Test (TST)? How do members of different cultures differ on
the TST?

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What is a meta-analysis? What does meta-analysis discover about cultural differences in

conformity and aggression